calorimetry is a valuable tool in pharmaceutical research and development, providing information for decision making in drug lead discovery and optimization. Unlike the present high-throughput screening methods used by the industry, such as the affinity sensors, calorimetric analysis can provide very detailed information on the binding interaction between molecules. Calorimetry provides detailed thermodynamic information including the enthalpy and entropy of a reaction. The ability to measure enthalpy and determine entropy allows the drug development team to assess the relative contributions of enthalpy and entropy to a binding reaction. Enthalpy is driven by the number and type of bonds in the binding reaction. Entropy is driven by the geometry of the ligand and the binding site. Understanding the contributions of enthalpy and entropy is critical in drug development because it allows for the selection of compounds that are more readily optimized. Specifically, reactions that are enthalpy-driven tend to be favored due to their enhanced selectivity and reactivity.
With current technology, initial high throughput screening and the first candidate drug selection is performed by affinity analysis. Only after the set of candidate drugs has been narrowed down to select few, candidates are analyzed by the two currently available calorimetry techniques, Differential Scanning calorimetry and Isothermal Titration calorimetry, to measure the thermochemical properties of a reaction. The limitations of the current generation of calorimeters include:                Inadequate sensitivity for reactions with a low change in enthalpy        Large amount of protein required (0.5 mg to 5 mg)        Low experimental throughput because of both long experiment run times (60 to 90 minutes) and the need to sequentially run controls to assess the significance of the confounding effects. The potential confounding effects primarily include heating due to the mixing of dissimilar sample media (buffers with different pH, ionic strength, and solvents), the presence of DMSO from compound storage, and solvation.        
Furthermore, compounds with poor solubility frequently generate hits in high throughput screens. Unfortunately, the concentrations of these compounds required to meet the mass requirement for reagents (protein and its ligand) are often above the solubility limit. As a result, calorimetry studies on the interactions of these compounds with their targets cannot be done. Paradoxically, additional synthetic/medicinal chemistry is required before calorimetry can be used, but this chemistry work cannot be justified without the calorimetry data. The outcome of this is that potentially promising compounds are not pursued. The ability to analyze smaller amounts of reagents would reduce this need for concentration.
Beyond pharmaceutical analysis, calorimetry is also valuable in many branches of materials science and chemistry. For example, calorimetry is useful for highly reactive or explosive compounds testing used in the design of chemical processes and safety equipment.